That’s how they are called in our household – and with the soccer season starting last weekend, I have been in and out of this one quite a bit.
They are 50cm x 35cm x 27cm see through plastic with a lid that closes by folding over the handles. They are big enough for most items and small enough to not be overloaded. Because of their size, they are a bit sturdier then the bigger ones you get from hardware houses and container stores.
See through is good for labeling. I just slide some scrap paper with the content clearly written in big letters on it on the inside. Easy to change and no endless rubbing to get rid of last year’s labels.
It’s a excellent idea to decide on one main storage container for the whole household or office. (Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a couple of other fitting sizes, but the general purpose ones). It makes it easier to replace broken tubs or lids, the spacing between shelves can be adjusted with a minimum of wasted space – and I think it looks good if everything is uniform, even if it’s just in a garage.
In addition, these have been around at Woolies, Big W and SuperBarn for the last 15 years, and you can always buy more or replace bits and pieces.

up side down, of course. Never just fling them into a broom cupboard, it will break all the bristles and next time you use them, you have broom hair all over your floor. This is easily made in 1/2 an hour. Just take any board, melamine, MDF, particle board… and hammer some long nails in the right position. Hang it in the broom cupboard or, as this one from our laundry on a free wall in the laundry.

If you are not into the DIY why not buy one from Howard’s storage?
5 Broom Magic Holder

$25.95

It’s easier and faster when you can find all your tools in one place.
The magic holder fits most size brooms.
shop online here

5.2 billion $ a year are wasted in Australia on food that’s bought but doesn’t get eaten.
With a projected population of 22,836,899 for Feb 2012 that is $227 per person per year. For an average family  of four: $908 per year. A big enough amount of money to start thinking and changing something. A considerable amount of production cost, packaging  and transport wasted. What’s the ecological footprint of that sum and what can we do about it?
I tried to get information about the ecological footprint, but found that too hard to calculate, as even experts are not agreeing on what needs to be taken into consideration when coming up with a meaningful ecco footprint number. But I do have a few ideas about why we do it and what can be done about it:
I think everybody is  guilty of throwing some food out – but it should be the exception, not the rule. Nobody does it intentionally and there are varied reasons why it will get to that point.
·       People have very high standard when going shopping and all good intention to “home cook this week”. And then never get around to it.
·       Lack of planning ahead and impulse buying.
·       Some people can cook and would love to do it, but are so overwhelmed with the clutter on bench top and dinner table that they rather feed the kids baked beans in front of the TV.
Sometimes it is the second generation eating like this. A lot of my clients tell me, that they never learned. When Jamie Oliver filmed his Food revolution in America he made a comment about his utter surprise about kids who had never, at the age of 10, used knife and/or fork. For them food is always finger food!
I think we have to distinguish between eating as the task of putting food in one’s mouth so you don’t starve and eating as in family dinners, sharing stories and food. Food needs to be appreciated – kids have to develop a relationship with food, they have to learn about food. But it’s not just lack of cooking skills and time and ability to use a knife and fork. I am a Professional Organiser and come across a lot of families that basically don’t have a dinner table they can use.
And that’s not because they don’t have that piece of furniture, but because it’s so full of clutter that nobody eats at it.
So mums feed the kids in front of the TV, that’s easy and very non confrontational. As far as I am concerned, you might as well serve Play- dough! And when dad comes home, the parents do the same, balancing their plate on their knees.
No wonder kids grow up with some sort of eating disorder, either too much or too little, because who would go to the effort of cooking nice food if nobody really gets what’s eaten , distracted by watching TV or bored because they eat on their own
·
By being mindful of these reasons, there are easy ways to work against that over consumerism:
·       meal plan
·       Shop with a shopping list.
·       Organiser your pantry – every half year!!!!
·       Ask for help and learn
·       Always unpack the dishwasher – this one sounds a bit out of line, but if you treat the dishwasher as a cupboard for dirty dishes rather than clean ones – you are not going to have to clean away mountains of dirty plates before starting to cook all that delicious produce you bought.

Hubby decided to renovate walls and ceiling of the bathroom on the weekend– without notice, and AFTER I MOPPED THE FLOOR IN THE WHOLE HOUSE!!
Living in an old house, there is always more renovating work once you get started, because some of the render just basically fell in his face. So we took off what came easily – and decided to do the same all around the hose and then call for my favourite handymen to ‘fix it’.
This is why I have been oiling my jewellery today, because there was a patch of render coming down just above where my pieces hang on the wall. You see, my dad makes my jewellery – I wear almost nothing else. He even made our wedding bands! He uses silver, tin, old baking trays, leather, pebbles and lots and lots of time to come up with the (for me) most beautiful, earthy, ethnic looking pieces. A lot of them are pendants on a leather string – hence the oiling. The drilled and cut up baking tray loves a bit of lubricant, too.
In the process, I decluttered a bit – but it’s hard to let go of handmade things for me – so I might ask my kids what they think about wearing a bracelet.

Don’t hide them

This is one of a pair of painted perforated metal sheets I use to hang my jewellery. The holes fit a M4  screw and I designed it so I can hang long pieces at the top and store bracelets and earrings at the bottom. I have had it for more than 15 years and I love it because I can see my bling even when I am not wearing it.

Via: www.ructables.com
Gotcha! Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a stocking over the vacuum hose.

With the first couple of school weeks under our belt – we start to see the weak points in our and our kid’s time management. I am a believer of nipping it in the butt early, so my kids start using a diary of sorts from year 3 onwards. I have drawn up our own A3 sized term planner: undated so I can photocopy the same template for every term for every child. They fill in the dates and colour in the weekends themselves. We then sit down and write in fixtures: like German lessons on Monday afternoons, or rowing on Sunday morning. As soon as homework starts we allocate days for the reappearing, every week tasks they have to do. For the older kids, we start back-calculating from assignment hand in day; to find a good way of project managing that task – which doesn’t mean me rushing to Officeworks on the morning it has to be in to have something spiral bound or laminated.
Again, different days of the week lend itself to different activities. If you know you don’t have internet access, what about creating a reading folder and take a highlighter to actually read through all the websites you found in your research. Try to do the physical acitve homework parts on the days they have extra curricular academic lessons like musik or language.
It works pretty well – although Mr. (almost) 9 prefers a little booklet he can carry with him and ignores the Term Planner – but that’s fine. Even kids have their own organising style and as adults, we just have to find a way of helping them find and use that style. It seems to work for him. He told me very proud in the car this morning, that, thanks to his diary, he didn’t forget his library bag!

P.S. If you want something to start with for your own term planner. I have a pdf version of ours I am happy to share. Just pop into the comments box and I’ll send it to you

I have decided, from now on every Monday, I will post a useful link: to a great blog or website, a newspaper article I found over the weekend or, as today, an organising related video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9r85zAeNxE&feature=related

8 steps to managing your warranties and manuals from Paper Flow

Here is an organising idea that should be crucial to implement this time of the year!
(Posted on November 01, 2011 in Bed, Bath & Kitchen,
Decor & Furniture, Organize & Personalize by Simone.)

Look Up
Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than
cluttering up the floor.

This is the LessMess Christmas checklist. I know, that some of you have already seen it last year – but there a re so many new subscribers, I wanted to share this again: Just amend the details to suit your family’s needs. Hang it up in a prominent place around your house and keep working on it, adding things and most importantly crossing things off.

3 weeks to go Entertainment and food

• Decide on activities, events. Theme it (colours) even if you don’t make that official. It makes decision making and shopping easier
• Invite guests to Christmas activities & events
• Order food (ham, pork, turkey)
• Make Christmas cake, pudding biscuits
• Eat through your freezer

Gift giving

• Draw up a gift list of people for whom you need to buy presents
• Start writing down present ideas
• Start buying presents
• Check supply of wrapping paper, cards, ribbons
• Post overseas presents and cards

General

• Take last year’s received X-Mass cards to produce list for this year – throw last year’s out
• Purchase Christmas Cards (unless you have enough to last you a lifetime)
• Purchase Christmas stamps
• Check Christmas decoration & lights – buy new ones if necessary

2 weeks to go Entertainment and food

• Clean your freezer
• Clean your fridge and oven
• Plan Christmas food menu. Plan something you can prepare as far ahead as possible or at least parts of it  – even better something that freezes well
• Decide who brings what (entree, desert, and alcohol, soft drinks) asks for help!!!
• Write up additional items list (bon bons, serviettes, glasses, chairs, table deco…)
• Buy non perishable food and drinks
• Prepare  whatever possible: chop onions, cheese, herbs,… and freeze

Gift giving

• continue purchasing presents
• make notes of what you bought for whom and where you hid it
  (my mum always forgot at least one present – I actually loved it; getting just one more the next day!!)
• Wrap presents
• Check list for outstanding presents
• Check whether any toys require batteries & if necessary buy them now

General

• Post Christmas cards
• Put up Christmas tree & start with other decorations. With children: do something every day

1 week to go Entertainment and food

• Draw up timetable for Christmas lunch. From when to start defrosting the turkey to serving coffee & mints.
• Remind friends and family about their contributions

General

• Check camera/video for batteries and recharge if necessary

2 days to go Entertainment and food

• Buy perishable food
• Prepare what’s possible

Gift giving

• Wrap remaining presents

December 24th enjoy Christmas

The Organising Guru from the Oprah show
Two weeks ago, AAPO (our industry association) celebrated N.O.W.  With workshops, stalls and a special breakfast with Peter Walsh, organised by Dymo, our major sponsor for that week.
Hugely enjoyable; I have never been at the Westin Hotel, which is a beautiful conversion of the old GPO on Martin Place in Sydney. The Architect in me was very impressed.
The cook in me was impressed with the service and absolutely delicious breakfast. There was a whole table of Organisers and Peter Walsh always makes a point to get the message out there that POs exist in Australia, too. He even recognised me from the last years, which made me feel very special indeed.
One of your questions and one in the room for Peter Walsh were: what’s your most important organising tip? “It’s not about the stuff! Leave the stuff for a moment and think about a vision. A vision for your live, a vision for work. Following from there you should be able to create a more concrete vision of your workplace. And that doesn’t mean what filing system you want or what colour pencil holder. Words like welcoming, productive and inspiring came up in the room. That’s your motivation to get it done, getting rid of everything that is in the way of that vision.
Another one was: “I never have time” And I completely agree with Peter Walsh here. “It’s not about time, it’s about importance. If it’s important enough you’ll find time. If you think, your employer doesn’t value a clutter free environment, it’s hard to maintain one.” As a leader you have to give your team permission to create a clutter free desk. “When you are organised, you function on a much higher level.”

A couple of other quotes, I thought worth mentioning here:
“Clutter is a decision delayed”
“Later is the best friend of clutter”
“The most important minutes in your workday are the last 10. Set up the workspace for tomorrow”